Theme 22: Mother Nature

"Kagome, dear, what's the matter darling" Mrs Higurashi asked, sitting on the side of her daughters bed.

Kagome put on a brave face throughout her recovery. She studied more than she'd ever studied since coming to the feudal error now that Inuyasha wasn't breathing down her neck and her wounds closed up well with modern medicine, but there was no cure for the overwhelming pain in her heart.

Holding Inuyasha, after his transformation, she couldn't hear him.

Usually, whenever things got really bad, Kagome could always sorta feel what Inuyasha was thinking, but holding him in her lap she heard nothing and it broke her. What is that she really couldn't bring him back?

"Kagome dear?"

"It's not working mama!" She said

Her mother frowned and then reached forward and held the heartbroken girl, stroking her hair "Is Inuyasha still without his memories?" she asked softly.

"Yes. "Nothing works. It's been so long and I keep trying, talking to him, telling him about what happened, but he's co…cold. I've tried so hard to be kind and to be hard but it's like there's this impenetrable wall I can't break, its nothing like how he was when we met."

She pulled away and looked into her mother's eyes "Do you think this was what he was like before he met Kikyo? She's the one who opened him up, made him into the person I met. Am I…really not good enough, can I not break though his heart?"

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He dreamed of Inuyasha's mother, the human woman who had ensnared his father.

For a long time, Sesshomaru had only ever thought of her with disgust, as the one who was the cause for his father's death. A vile, mortal woman who tainted the dynasty of proud Inuyoukai with a half-breed.

But tonight, he saw her as Inuyasha saw her.

As a child living in a human settlement Inuyasha tried to join in a game, but as a half breed, he was not accepted by either Youkai or human. The boy Inuyasha was learning of the word Half-breed.

He did not understand the word, but seeing the humans leave after he arrived made him sad.

He turned to run to his mother, who stood in her grand kimono amongst the flower garden, her long hair fell to her knees. In Inuyasha's eyes she was so beautiful. She smiled at him and held out her arms. Ball abandoned, he ran to her "Mother!"

In her arms he felt safe. He looked up into her face so lovely. She was warmth, she was kindness, she was secure and safe. "What's a…half breed?"

Then that lovely face filled with tears, even as it tried to smile, she caressed his hair and whispered "I'm so sorry my darling" before enveloping him in an embrace so tight he could barely breath, as if she wanted to protect him from all the worlds cruelty.

Such emotions, they were foolish. He would only break when she died, as she would and did, being a mortal.

And yet, Sesshomaru could not remember ever having such feelings towards his own mother. Love and gentleness was not an emption prompted amongst Youkai anymore, it tainted the beast. He respected her, admired her, but this kind of love and devotion? It was foreign.

Inuyasha's human emotions were too strange.